Poyntz Avenue Prairieway

What’s the best way to walk or bike to Downtown Manhattan? If you’re setting out from K-State campus, Aggieville, or City Park, your route downtown will likely take you along Poyntz Avenue. With only 1.25 miles between these three Manhattan landmarks, walking and biking along Poyntz Avenue should be a viable option. However, the fastest route downtown comes with its own set of drawbacks.

Between City Park and Downtown Manhattan, people walking or using wheelchairs face narrow sidewalks with uneven pavement. People cycling must navigate high traffic speeds and parked cars. For many active transportation users, the proximity to the 75’ wide roadway feels exposed and uncomfortable. Deterred by the fast-moving traffic on Poyntz, you might opt instead to make the trip in your car – or to forego it entirely.

Fundamentally, the section of Poyntz Avenue between City Park and Juliette Avenue doesn’t feel connected to the rest of downtown. But what if the route downtown were changed to feel safer and more comfortable? What if the experience of the trip mattered as much as the destination?

The Poyntz Avenue Prairieway is a proposed multi-use path to better connect Downtown Manhattan with City Park, Aggieville, and the K-State campus. Based on historic infrastructure and connections in Manhattan, the Prairieway would make Poyntz Avenue safer, more inviting, and more comfortable for cyclists, pedestrians, and other active transportation users. The goals of the project are as follows:

• Improve mobility between Downtown Manhattan and other core areas: City Park, Aggieville, and the K-State campus.
• Implement traffic-calming strategies (including a road diet, pedestrian islands, and curb extensions) to make travel downtown safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
• Design an aesthetically pleasing and cohesive route downtown with measures for comfort, safety, and accessibility.
• Use green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) plantings to infiltrate stormwater and mitigate existing drainage problems.

The Flint Hills MPO has prepared two example options for the design of a Poyntz Avenue Prairieway. Both options leverage the planned Poyntz Avenue road diet, which has been in development since 2010 and was added to FHMPO's Long-Range Transportation Plan in 2015. The road diet would narrow Poyntz from five lanes to three. Rather than keeping the unused right-of-way on both sides of the road, the space would then be consolidated and utilized by the Prairieway on the north side of the road, as shown in the following graphic.

This option locates the multi-use path in the middle of the Prairieway, creating two smaller planting areas. Smaller trees provide less shade, but allow for more diverse planting options between the trees. Sun-loving pollinator gardens could be integrated into the greenway, showcasing Kansas native plants and fostering habitat for native insects and birds.

Perspective and plan-view illustrations of the first option are shown below.

By placing the multi-use path along the public right-of-way boundary, a larger continuous planting can be created. Large canopy trees would add comfort and shade along a part of Poyntz that currently feels overly exposed. Gardens of hardy, shade-tolerant plants create additional separation between the road and people traveling along the multi-use path. With a wider, more secluded greenway, this option evokes the strips of parkland that lined Poyntz during the days of the streetcar line.

Perspective and plan-view illustrations of this option are shown below.

The following tables and graphics provide a simplified overview of FHMPO's two options for the Poyntz Avenue Prairieway. Each of the two Poyntz Prairieway options offers the same amount of space for the right-of-way, but how the space is used is slightly different.

In the first option, the trail splits the right-of-way, providing room for planted areas on either side.

In the second option for the Poyntz Avenue Prairieway, the trail is located on the far northern end of the right-of-way, leaving more space for larger shade trees.

Curb extensions reduce the distance pedestrians have to cross to reach the other side of the street. They also encourage drivers to make slower turns. Installing planted curb extensions on the Poyntz Avenue Greenway would improve safety, help reduce runoff, infiltrate stormwater. For more information and more detailed recommendations, visit the NACTO website  here .

Susan I. Enscore, J. Webster, & Edward E. Hooker.  Historical and Architectural Documentation of the Interurban Trolley Bridge at Three Mile Creek, Fort Riley, Kansas.  

Riley County Historical Society.  Manhattan, Kansas Survey.  

National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).  Urban Street Stormwater Guide.